People have snored since man first walked the earth. While snoring probably wasn’t as prominent as it is today, it still occurred. Some of the reasons people snore didn’t effect the cave man. Smoking, drinking and excess weight, some of the top reasons for snoring, probably weren’t a problem in those days. However, early cave man did get older and their palate muscles lost the firmness of youth.

People in the early times did have anomalies in their throat structure that also could cause them to snore and after as tough day of chasing a wooly mammoth across the plains, the cave man could be so tired that even his throat and tongue relaxed and made him snore.

There are many references in old literature to indicate snoring was a problem and about as many cures for that problem as there were civilizations. Sometimes, particularly in the case of the ancient Egyptians or Chinese medicines, the men of medicine used aromatic oils to stop or prevent snoring. Man has attempted to stop snoring for centuries but only recently has he discovered how truly important it is to sleep uninterrupted through the night.

Animals and Snoring

Snoring isn’t limited to man, even animals snore. If you own a pet, you might have heard them sawing logs as they sleep. One pet owner, not realizing her slightly overweight cat snored, searched the house for the strange noise she heard. At first, she thought it was on a commercial, and then she turned down the television. It was high-pitched and rhythmic. After much searching, she identified it as the cat snoring.

Many different animals snore. After all, snoring comes from the air passages closing slightly and the forced air coming through the passage causes the palate to vibrate. The sound it makes is what we refer to as snoring. If an animal has a palate, breathes through its mouth at any time and there’s a possibility of an obstruction, the animal can snore. Normally, just like in humans, overweight animals tend to snore more than those of a svelte build do.

Elephants sleep standing up during non-REM sleep and laying down for REM sleep. Since snoring occurs only during non-REM sleep, elephants snore when they’re standing.

Snoring Remedies

While oils, herbs and acupuncture might have been the solution for snoring in ancient Egypt or China, India had another method to help prevent snoring, Yoga. Several yoga techniques are valuable tools to help stop snoring.

The Simha Garjana Asana or roaring lion pose is one tool from India to help you stop snoring. You begin in the Vajra Asana position, the diamond pose, and spread your legs so your thighs are close to being parallel to your shoulders. Put the palms of your hands flat on the mat in front of you in between your knees making your fingers point toward you and your wrists point outward. You’ll tilt your head back as you lean forward.

Focus your attention on the point right between the eyebrows and inhale through your nostrils as deeply as you can. Then open your mouth, stick out your tongue and exhale through the mouth. Make a growling sound with the exhalation. Do this several times. It really works to help build the throat muscles and stop snoring.

The Yoga breathing technique, the ujjayi pranayama, known as hissing breath, also can be an aid for snoring. This technique helps build the lungs and removes any blockage in your throat. In order to do it, you sit in the easy pose, the Sukha Asana or the lotus position, Padma Asana.

Breath deeply through your nostrils with your eyes closed as you allow your body to calm. Once relaxed, forcefully inhale through both nostrils while contracting your neck muscles. The idea is to produce a low throbbing sound from the inhalation.

Some people feel the vibration in their chest or their head. Hold the breath as long as you can then close one nostril with your fingers and slowly exhale through the other. Inhale again, then close the other nostril and release the air from the first one you held closed. Repeating this helps you to breathe through your nose easier. Since mouth breathing is one cause of snoring, it’s a great exercise to help you stop snoring. You’ll need to do this exercise between five to six times a day.

Other Interesting Facts on Snoring

There have been over three hundred inventions patented and trademarked having to do with snoring just in the United States. However, people still snore. In fact, about 45 percent of the adult population snore occasionally and at least 25 percent of them do it on a consistent basis.

Famous people aren’t immune to snoring. Lady Di noted that she had to elbow Prince Charles because of his habitual snoring. In fact, she even moved bedrooms because she couldn’t get adequate sleep.

The Marine officers who traveled with Winston Churchill also shared a similar plight. His snoring was so loud that it often was the center of their conversation.

While Winston Churchill lived to a ripe old age, the same was not true of Theodore Roosevelt. He died at the age of sixty. He shared the same problems as Winston Churchill. He was slightly overweight, drank a bit and snored. However, unlike Churchill, the doctors claim that his snoring and weight contributed to his early demise.

Another Brit, Queen Victoria, also sawed a few logs during the night. As she grew older, her body grew larger. In fact, her waist was a 46 inches at one point. The extra weight was probably the reason she snored.

David Arquette, husband of the beautiful star Courtney Cox, also is a loud and frequent snorer according to her reports. He isn’t the lone snorer in the world of celebrities, however. Rosanne Barr snores so loud her husband Ben Thomas has to sleep in the other room. David Gest, on of the celebrities on “I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here” kept everyone awake with his snoring.

Finally, the beautiful and elegant Elizabeth Taylor isn’t that well mannered at night. Those who know her say she makes frightful snoring sounds.

AND THE WINNER IS……

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Melvin Switzer from South Hampton officially holds the record as the world’s loudest snorer. His snoring reached the peak of 92 decibels.

In order to understand how loud this really is, consider that fireworks are 140 decibels, an aircraft taking off is 180, a snowmobile is 120, a chain saw is 110 and a lawn mower is 90. Melvin’s snoring rated between a lawnmower and a chain saw and was one and a half times louder than normal conversation.

Snoring comes from a variety of causes and some of those don’t require surgery. Surgery, no matter how simple, is normally for more extreme cases, particularly when sleep apnea, a condition where the air passage closes completely and blocks breathing for ten seconds or longer, accompanies it.

Sleep apnea is dangerous and leads to many other far more serious conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart conditions and stroke. Surgery also has some danger, no matter how minor, so even if doctors note the snoring might come from a large uvula, the dangling hunk of flesh in the back of the mouth or enlarged adenoids, they may not perform it, based on your overall health.

You can stop snoring in many cases by improving your health. Some snoring comes from being overweight and simply dropping a few pounds can make it disappear. You don’t have to be huge to snore. A few extra pounds in your neck and chest can add pressure that closes the air passage slightly and results in snoring.

Simply adopting a diet to lose weight and increasing your exercise can help you alleviate your snoring problem. It also can make you healthier even if it doesn’t stop the nightly rumble.

Acid reflux can cause snoring too. Acid reflux can irritate the lining of the esophagus and create swelling that constricts the airflow. Changing diet, losing weight and treating the acid reflux can improve your health immensely and may stop you from snoring. You’ll also notice other benefits such as fewer dental problems, since acid reflux can erode the teeth in addition to creating rapid heartbeats if it irritates the vagus nerve.

If you smoke, you might consider stopping if you truly want to eliminate snoring. Smoke contains irritants and dries the throat and sinuses. Both an irritated throat that swells slightly and blocked sinuses can contribute to snoring. Of course, if you quit, you snore because of excess body weight.

Make sure you have a lot of fresh veggies that crunch when you quit smoking and watch your weight. Having a drink of alcoholic beverage before bed also can lead to snoring. If you eliminate the alcohol, you might find you don’t snore.

Your sleeping position also influences whether you snore or not. More people snore when they lie flat on their back. That’s because of gravity. Everything falls backward and blocks the air passages. There are snore pillows that you prop against your back to prevent rolling from a side position and even cures as simple as a tennis ball.

You tape the tennis ball to your back or stitch it into a casing on the back of your pajamas. If you roll over to your back, the ball is uncomfortable and you’ll immediately roll back to your side.

Vocal exercises only cut through the silence but not the flesh and can be an aid in snoring. By practicing the scales with la-la-la-la-la, ma-ma-ma-ma-ma and ka-ka-ka-ka-ka, you’re strengthening the tongue and air passage muscles. In addition, singing at the top of your lungs and doing mouth exercises can make a big improvement in the sleep of your bed partner.

You can eliminate flabby palate muscles by exercise. Open your mouth and look at the uvula in the mirror. When you tighten and loosen your throat, you’ll notice it bobbing up and down with each motion. That’s and exercise that helps the muscles of the upper air passage and can prevent snoring.

Sticking your tongue out and moving your jaw around can also improve those muscles. Pushing it out as far as you can and then pulling it back in your mouth is one exercise. A second is pushing it out and attempting to touch your nose with your tongue. The third involves touching your chin with your tongue.

You can also exercise the jaw muscles by jutting the jaw to one side, then returning it to neutral position, the normal way you hold your face and finally, jutting it to the other side.

Some simple yoga exercises can also help you to stop snoring. Mouth breathers often snore. Training your body to breathe through the nose is one method, which requires no expense and no surgery, but might help you stop snoring. The exercise starts with you sitting in a relaxed lotus position, the one you normally picture when you envision yoga, where you cross over the legs in front of you.

Inhale deeply through both nostrils and then release the air. Next inhale but this time cover one nostril so the air comes from the other. When you take the next breath, cover the other nostril with your finger. It’s simple but it does train the body to breathe through the nose.

There are oral devices that can help if your jaw drops inappropriately and causes the airflow to constrict and devices to hold the tongue so it doesn’t drop to the back of the throat. The mouth braces fit over the teeth and keep your jaw in the appropriate spot. These can be as expensive as several hundred dollars if you have them custom fitted at the dentist, or under a hundred dollars for those you find online.

There is a variety of appliances for the tongue. Some of them are similar to the braces for the jaw and others are quite unique. One appliance is a bulb with an open suction trumpet on the end. You simply squeeze the air out by pressing the bulb and insert your tongue in the opening of the trumpeted section. The suction holds your tongue in place and prevents it from falling to the back of your throat.

Learning the reason you snore isn’t easy but once you find out, you can take measures to prevent it. You may not require surgery at all but only lifestyle changes. However, many times, there are multiple reasons for snoring. Just because any one of the non-surgical techniques doesn’t eliminate snoring completely, if it reduces the snoring, it probably is handling part of your problem.

If you snore badly loudly, have high blood pressure and are sleepy through the day, you might want to investigate further to see if you have sleep apnea. This dangerous sleep disorder requires immediate attention before it affects your entire body.

Before approaching the potential of whether anti-snore rings can help prevent face puffiness, you must first know what an anti-snore ring is and whether it’s effective in preventing snoring. While some sites note the ring is effective in the reduction of snoring, normally a link is somewhere to take you to a website selling the rings. Other sites aren’t as complimentary, but in the defense of the ring, they don’t use a study, but simply interview experts in acupuncture for their feedback.

The ring is supposed to go on the pinky and fit at the base, where rings normally fit. Even though many of the instructions say above the knuckle and below the joint, after viewing pictures of people wearing the ring, it’s at the same location you’d wear any other pinky ring. According to the websites, the ring has balls or protrusions on the inside that gently massage the acupuncture points on the heart meridian with just the right pressure. One article states the meridian is on the palm of the hand.

There’s a problem with the statements however. First, the rings are adjustable. Any time you can adjust any type of clothing, there’s no guarantee that it will give just the right amount of pressure. Some people like loose fitting rings and clothes while others want their clothing to pinch a bit, just to remind them they’re wearing it. Okay, so maybe any pressure is just the right amount of pressure.

The next issue has to do with the construction of the ring itself. The bumps are opposite of the opening at the back that allows for adjustment. According to one site, the meridian for the heart and lungs is on the palm of the hand. How is the ring going to massage the underside of the finger if the bumps are on top? The answer, of course, is that the site named the wrong location. To find out the right answer, you simply need to check out ancient Chinese meridian lines for the heart.

After much research, and visiting several sites, only one site showed ancient acupuncture or pressure meridians on the pinky. Even reflexology, an alternative medicine using acupuncture points on the hands and feet, show no pressure points in the location at the top of the hand. The site that showed the pressure points, listed them under the Jiao, rather than meridians to the heart.

While it’s not a complete washout, anyone that studied snoring knows that the lungs do have something to do with snoring, but the sinuses, oral cavity and even acid reflux has more to do with it. No one really knew why aspirin worked until recently, but they did know it worked. Maybe the anti-snoring ring really does work, but the reason they give isn’t right.

One site noted that the ring stimulated the Jiao channel. After looking that up, you’ll find that the only heart stimulation is on the middle finger and ring finger, but the pinky affects the sinuses and does pass by the heart but also goes to the stomach and intestines. If you want to see the movement of the energy, click on this website.

This may be why the snore ring works. Snoring often comes from stuffy sinuses but in addition to other things, it also can come from acid reflux. The meridian line sends energy to both of these areas, the stomach and the sinuses. This could mean there is some logic for the ring to work, if you follow acupuncture and acupressure as an alternative healing technique.

According to the study by Dr. Tanya Mei-Tai Coon, a practicing doctor of Eastern Medicine from Denver, after testing the anti-snore ring on users, he found that it worked in seven out of ten cases.

According to Coon, “The two prongs on the inside of the Anti Snore Therapeutic Ring press on the heart meridian and the sterling silver metal also gives energy to this channel. Wearing the ring increases energy flow to what is referred to as the upper jiao, which contains the heart and lungs.” If you check back to the link, the energy flow does pass through the heart, but this is the only chart that shows any link.

According to the USA Today Article  The ring worked well for several couples that responded for interview. While some doctors weren’t impressed with the ring, those who used it seemed to feel it helped. The article notes that the ring was a serendipitous discovery.

A jeweler from Australia named John Woodley tried to find a cure for the pain from a car accident. He deduced that if he could create a ring that massaged the heart meridian in the pinkie (So he found the meridian there.), he could relieve the pain. Instead, it caused him to stop snoring.

If your face swells or becomes puffy because of sinus problems, poor circulation or lack of sleep, then the pinky ring to stop snoring might help that problem too. There is no research into whether the ring stops facial swelling but increasing circulation certainly reduces puffiness on most parts of the body.

If the ring increases the circulation or at least makes your heart stronger, then facial puffiness after sleep can be a thing of the past. However, the facial puffiness may be the reason for the snoring and not the reverse.

Snoring comes from closing of the air passage in many cases. If your face swells, the potential for the passage to close is greater. The best advice in this case, is to seek the advice of a physician to find the true reason you have facial puffiness in the morning. It can be an indication that you slept wrong and blocked circulation or it can indicate something more severe.

Simply checking with a doctor first could identify potential problems before they become a danger to your life. You might find that you have sleep apnea or simply eat too much salt.

As for the snore ring the answer is muddy at best but it does seem to work for some people. It’s an inexpensive solution to snoring if you’re one of those people.

If you have a tongue the size of Gene Simmons, the rock star from Kiss, you probably snore. Snoring comes from blocking the air passage and as the air attempts to make its way through the now narrowed passage, it sets off a chain of vibrations and creates the snoring.  Various things can cause blockage, one of them is a large tongue that falls to the back of the throat when relaxed.

In fact, one of the anti-snoring devices helps to prevent just that, movement of the tongue backwards. It is a suction bulb with an end too large to fit into the mouth. You squeeze it and insert the tongue. The tongue remains trapped and can’t fall backward to cause blockage or snoring.

Having a big tongue is not that common but it isn’t the most uncommon cause for snoring. A number of other ones involve too large of parts or too flabby of ones in the anatomy.  Your throat contains the uvula, that little fleshy piece that dangles down in the back. If that’s too large or you have a floppy palate, you’re going to snore.  While there’s no little suction equipment to stop the dangle, these problems often require surgery.

If you noticed a large growth on your neck, it could be a goiter. Goiters are enlarged thyroid gland that either comes from over or under production of hormones or it comes from lack of iodine. While goiters aren’t a common cause of snoring, they can cause it by adding pressure to block the flow of air.

Allergies can cause snoring. Food allergies, in particular allergies to milk, can cause an inordinate amount of mucous that blocks the passages and leads to snoring but there are other offenders besides “cow gold.” Allergies that affect your nasal passages and cause sneezing and swollen airways are more offenders that make your mate despise you in the middle of the night.

A stuffy nose creates difficulty breathing and a vacuum in the throat. The vacuum can cause the airway to partially collapse and pull together with the floppy throat tissues. Just like a plastic bag after you vacuum pack a meal, no air gets in or out and even the non-snorer begins snoring. Even a deviated septum, a deformity in the nose wall that keeps one nostril separate from the other, can create snoring.

In the words of the nursery rhyme, “Jack Spratt could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean, so she probably snored and he didn’t.” Extra belly fat often caused by overconsumption of calories can create all types of problems with breathing.

The bigger the belly, the more it presses on the lungs. Normally, there’s also a substantial roll of fat around the neck in addition to the belly. Both of these placements of fat can cause snoring. The belly presses on the lungs and reduces their size, which can lead to snoring. The neck fat simply blocks the airways.

Snoring sometimes leads to sleep apnea, a condition where the person’s airway is blocked enough to cause them to cease breathing. While not everyone who snores has sleep apnea, most people with sleep apnea snore.

Acid reflux can cause both. Acid reflux causes GERD, gastroesophageal reflux disease. This occurs when acid from the stomach backs up into the esophagus and damages tissue. In extremely severe cases, the acid can cause tissue damage and scarring as far up as the vocal chords.

Chronic cases can create scars inside the throat so damaging that they cause obstructions in breathing and ultimately snoring and sleep apnea. While it’s not one of the more common causes, it can be a contributing cause or the sole reason for snoring.

Another rare cause of both sleep apnea and snoring is a neurological problem. If the central nervous system doesn’t function as it should, it scrambles the instructions from the brain or blocks the signals. The throat receives no instructions to stay open and relaxes. The relaxation of the throat causes collapse. If the airway is completely blocked, you suffer from sleep apnea; if it’s partially blocked you snore.

Mouth breathers snore. When the mouth is open, it often causes all the tissue from the front to go towards the back. The inhaled air can dry out the lining of the throat and cause swelling. Mouth breathers normally snore.

However, the real culprit is the reason for the mouth breathing. Some people simply breathe that way out of habit but circumstance and physical problems force others into it from either colds or allergies that block the nasal passages or physical problems that make breathing through the nose impossible.

Nasal polyps are another potential problem that creates snoring. Nasal polyps are tiny growths in the nose often caused by allergies. As time passes, they can continue to enlarge and if they become large enough, they block the nasal passages. When this happens, it’s impossible to breathe through the nose and mouth breathing becomes necessary. Of course, mouth breathers tend to snore. A simple procedure can remove the polyps and therefore the obstruction.

The reason for snoring varies from person to person. While it might sound unusual, the lack of sleep can actually bring on snoring. If a person is so tired they almost pass out when they go to sleep, everything relaxes, including their throat and breathing structures. This deep state of relaxation can be one reason for snoring.

Most snoring, however, comes from age, alcoholic beverage before bedtime, cigarette smoking and overweight. Lifestyle changes can help to change you from a snorer to a reformed snorer. Snoring that comes from large tongues, or other mouth and throat structures are far more difficult to change and require a doctor’s advice.

Changing your sleeping position can help prevent snoring just as changing your diet can. It doesn’t take much extra weight to cause pressure to block breathing and it’s one thing you can change, although it might not be easy. Exercise, diet, no alcohol and ceasing smoking all make a difference.